my expectations are not that high every anime ive watched so far apart from 2 (chaos head 11eyes) i have enjoyed some i would rewatch others i would not bother. once i start an anime i finish it no matter what..

also i see alot of discussion for sao it was the first anime i watched about 1 month ago and it got me addicted to anime i even brought an asuna mouse pad cause i needed a new 1 XD

TrueGooberwrote:
Anyway, the point of all this is, I was wondering what your opinions on expectations, hype and publicity for anime were. Do you try to avoid knowing beforehand what the next season will be like? Or is it more exciting to know juicy details like the staff and studio that will be working on your new animes? I thought it would be interesting to discuss.

I don't go out of my way to avoid hype/publicity/information about upcoming shows, but I also don't tend toward activities that bring me in lots of contact with that kind of info. I skim the preview threads on CR, and occasionally read news stories here and elsewhere, so usually there are a few titles that I'll have at least heard of and understand that others are greatly looking forward to. But there are always titles I haven't heard about at all--sometimes I'll read the synopsis when they are announced here on CR, but sometimes I don't even do that, and just blindly add to my queue.

I get a little bit of enjoyment by hearing about upcoming shows, and hearing others get excited, but it's not all that exciting for me personally to listen to too much (or participate much in) speculative squeeing or denouncing. This limited level of involvement beforehand leaves me in a position of not having much by way of expectation--so I rarely end up truly disappointed, and occasionally do end up pleasantly surprised.

Though there are certainly shows I like less this season, the one that has registered as a mild disappointment is Oreimo 2. That's because I did have expectations based on how much I liked the first season. The second season feels different enough, and not in a way that I like more, that it's mildly disappointing. But I'm still watching it and liking it.

Flowers of Evil is my very favorite show this season, but it didn't exceed expectations, because I had no expectations. I knew nothing about it ahead of time, and the brief synopsis I'd read sounded very much like something I'd like.

Hataraku Maou-sama! is the biggest pleasant surprise.I love this show! I didn't know much going in, but based on its premise, it seemed like it might be mildly entertaining but not much else. I was wrong. As I wrote in that discussion thread, it's funny, it's romantic, it's dramatic, it's got character development, it's got plot that's well-paced and otherwise executed in a way that feels interesting instead of dull. I like the opportunity for this kind of surprise, and staying underinformed beforehand does aid that.